Smyth, others, stress Republican activism in upcoming elections

Speaking before a group of Republican women Tuesday, outgoing Assemblyman Cameron Smyth held up his one-time failed campaign for Santa Clarita City Council to demonstrate the importance of volunteers and advocacy in politics.

“Voter connection still works,” Smyth said. “There are so many races out there where we can make a difference.”

Though Smyth, R-Santa Clarita, said bipartisan cooperation is possible in state government, he said the main goal should still to lay the groundwork for a Republican to take over the governor’s mansion in 2014 and to work to prevent a Democratic supermajority in the state Senate this year.

“Everybody is very sincere up (in Sacramento),” Smyth said. “I just feel (Democrats) are sincerely wrong.”

Volunteering was a popular subject at the Santa Clarita Republican Women Federated meeting at The Paseo Club in Valencia, with members passing around sign-up sheets for various volunteer efforts such as campaigns to call voters, both local and in swing states, to push them toward the Republican ticket.

Group members also passed around a red, white and blue hat to collect donations for Elizabeth Emken, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate running against longtime Democratic incumbent Dianne Feinstein.

Errol Valladares, the statewide Latino coalition chair for the Emken campaign, showed a video of Emken speaking, as she was not able to attend the meeting on Tuesday.

In the video, Emken said Feinstein’s time in the Senate had come and gone.

“By the time you’ve been in office since 1492, you’ve been around too long,” Emken said in the video. “It’s time for a change.”